My hopes for a decent summer are diminishing by the day, but I am trying to make most of the odd couple of hours of sunshine here and there. We had a lot of rain this week, with very few sunny spells; even today, after waking up to rain (again), the sun is trying to come through, but the wind is chilly..

I managed some sewing time outside last weekend, to do little bit more on my blue cloth.

my bits of EPP transformed into 4 stars, 

2 stitched on already, with some old beads from my stash,

and 2 more stars yet to be appliqued 

And what is going on here?

Do you remember my green hexies a couple of posts back?

Well, the idea came from here,

but I want to do something more with the center panel; I have some ideas....

Despite the horrid summer, our fig, planted 3 years ago to cover a garage wall (and has done just that), is doing very well.

Some of the figs are already ripe (this variety doesn't go blue), so what to do with them?
As we don't particularly like eating them as they are; the figs which grow in our climate have very bland taste.
 I tried to use them to make some jam, and I thought a combination with apricots would be quite nice, adding lots of lemon juice.



The result was OK, but just that, not very exiting.
Will have to do some more research 😒.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017

more EPP

After complaining about the weather in my previous post, the next morning the sun came out and we had a nice summer day.

My blue "play cloth" made its outing into the garden (so rare this summer).

I was just playing with some ideas.

Did that really happened? Because we are back indoors today, too cold to sit outside.

What a strange summer we are having!

Beautiful clematis "Polish Spirit", planted earlier this year, 

is doing well, despite the weather.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk  2017

Very little stitching was going on here, for more then one reason.

For the second week the weather is not "summer weather"; not only wet, but cold too. Some nights I wish we had our winter quilt back on our bed.

Our garden is very lush, but we have not been able to spend much time out there 😒.

And then there are other things which get in the way;
a routine breast cancer screening, a two weeks wait for the result, only to get a letter asking to come for a follow up screening. Oh dear, not again....

Another week gone before an appointment at the hospital - it is all that waiting .... I am sure that some of you know exactly what I am talking about. Another x-ray and ultrasound (thankfully no biopsy this time) - and given "all clear", hurrah!

I find it difficult to be "creative" when I am worried; I tried to read, but I found myself just browsing through my bookshelves. But the hands wanted to do SOMETHING.

An idea for a wall hanging in one the my books - the central panel is made out of green hexies; 

EPP - I can do that without too much thinking.

I was determined to use only my stash for this project, but when I finished the central panel, I realized that I haven't got a suitable large piece of fabric for the background.
Oh no, I had to go shopping! 😉

Luckily the wonderful one stop Midsomer Quilting shop is little under 10 miles from me, and always such pleasure to visit. Not only they pride themselves on having more then 3,000 fabrics in stock, but you can also help yourself to coffee (or tea, or whatever) and sit down and have a chat with fellow quilters (if you find the time, with all those fabrics around).

They are working on their on-line shopping website at the moment, 

but they promise to stay a friendly shop as well.

Well, it is never just that one piece of fabric, is it?😊 

But the rest should tie in as well.

I also made a nice cake for my DD's birthday recently, 

a new recipe for me, Persian Love Cake, from Yasmin Khan's "The Saffron Tales".

It is made with lots of almonds, cardamom, lemon juice and rose water. 

It is beautifully moist and keeps well (I made it a couple days ahead), decorated with lemon icing, pistachio nuts and dry rose petals (from our roses).

I will definitively make it again!

In between the rain we managed to finish the new raised flower bed.

Before it got too wet, I harvested some lavender from our front garden, and it is now drying in the summer house.

This lot should keep me in lavender bags this winter 😊.

 Just as well, because the rest of the lavender is now too wet to cut and has gone over.

I think that's all for now; 

I managed to catch up here and I will come to have a look what you are up to!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2017